Loreley Mk III

The Loreley is designed to bring you closer to the “concert experience” that our flagship Gaudi provides, but in a smaller cabinet and at a lower price.  It uses the Gaudi’s four DDD driver array to provide an exceptional transient response, whilst maintaining great transparency and clarity across its dynamic range.  Like the Gaudi, the Loreley is capable of reproducing sound levels up to 120dB, which allows live music dynamics to be more realistically reproduced.   At the same time it can accurately reproduce the low-level detail and delicate nuances that are the essence of musical expression.  To give authentic weight and body to the low bass found in large-scale orchestral works and to produce this at realistic levels, each loudspeaker uses two 12-inch woofers and four 10-inch passive radiators.

Independent Bass Enclosures
Each loudspeaker has two large independent bass enclosures mounted one on top of the other, which stand between a top and a bottom plate. None of these components is attached to the other using screws or any form of hard connection, but are held together by an interlocking collar arrangement. This greatly reduces resonances and also makes the column more difficult to topple. This is a useful safety feature for customers who live in earthquake regions. Each enclosure is fitted with a 12-inch inverted dome driver that has a maximum excursion of 3 inches. Distortion levels are typically a tenth of those of conventional 18-inch sub woofers at comparable output levels. In addition, their acceleration and transient responses are far superior due to the immense magnetic forces generated by the massive rare earth magnets we use and to the very high stiffness of the dome diaphragms. The net result is a system with a very extended and very clean low frequency response, that is also capable of prodigious output levels, exceeding 110dB at 18Hz.

Freedom from Power Compression
Power compression, the reduction in dynamic range caused by heating of the voice coil, is much reduced over conventional woofer drivers due to the ultra-wide, underhung voice coil and triple magnet structure we employ. Power handling is also correspondingly greatly increased over that of conventional designs.

German Physiks’ Revolutionary DDD Driver
Like all German Physiks loudspeakers, the key to the exceptional performance delivered by the Loreley is our carbon fibre DDD driver.  Here, this wide-bandwidth omnidirectional driver covers the range from 180Hz up to 24kHz. This extremely wide range is achieved by the use of pistonic, bending wave and modal radiation: most loudspeakers use drivers that are purely pistonic. The same DDD driver is used on all German Physiks loudspeakers, from our entry level Unlimited Mk II, to our top of the range, $300,000 Gaudi Mk II.  The DDD driver gives the same very important advantages to all German Physiks designs and is what sets them apart from the competition. These are:

1.  Exceptionally coherent and natural sound:  The extremely wide operating range of the DDD driver provides an exceptionally coherent and natural sound. This is very difficult to achieve when this frequency range is split over two or more different types of driver, which are in physically different positions on the cabinet.

This wide operating range also eliminates the crossover point in the mid-range that loudspeakers using conventional pistonic drivers must have.  Our hearing is most sensitive in the mid-range and avoiding the level and phase errors that crossovers can create from this region further improves transparency.

2.  Realistic stereo images more like you experience in the concert hall:  When you listen to music in a concert hall, you are in an enveloping sound field where much of the sound is reflected off a surface before it reaches your ears.  These reflections play an important part in the creation the stereo image that you perceive. Because the DDD driver is omnidirectional, it radiates all frequencies evenly around it and so creates a similar enveloping sound field in the listener’s room.  This way the Loreley is able to recreate a more natural rendition of the original stereo image. This has excellent depth and focus, but without the overly sharp image definition that some hi-fi loudspeakers produce and which you will rarely if ever hear at a live performance.

3. Stereo imaging enjoyable in almost all positions in the room:  Conventional loudspeakers tend to produce stereo images that can only be best enjoyed from one position in the room, the “sweet-spot”, and then usually by only one person. Move away from the “sweet-spot” and both the stereo image and tonal balance become progressively degraded. This is because conventional pistonic drivers tend to concentrate their radiation into a beam that narrows with increasing frequency.

By contrast, the DDD driver’s omnidirectional radiation pattern enables the Loreley to produce excellent stereo images that can be enjoyed from a wide range of listening positions in the room, whilst also maintaining a more even tonal balance:  much like you would experience at a live performance.  This gives more flexibility in where you sit and allows several people to enjoy a good sound simultaneously, so you can share your music with others.   It also makes the Loreley ideal for the front channels in a high end-home theatre system.

Because you are not restricted to a small “sweet-spot” in order to hear the best sound, the Loreley provides a more relaxed listening experience.  This is especially noticeable when you listen for long periods.

4.  Exceptional dynamics: The DDD driver’s very low moving mass provides an excellent impulse response, allowing it to recreate both the attack of the music and resolve low level detail very accurately.  This is essential in order to faithfully reproduce the delicate nuances of a performance and make it sound like music, rather than just good hi-fi. The resultant transparency is maintained even on complex high-level passages. Once you have become accustomed to the more natural presentation provided by our DDD driver, it can be difficult to go back to listening to a conventional design.  This is something we often hear from our customers and it has also been commented on in reviews.

5.  Accurate portrayal of musical instruments’ tonal characteristics:  The DDD driver is phase linear across its operating range, ensuring that the tonal character of each musical instrument is reproduced with great accuracy. This together with the excellent dynamic response enables the Loreley to reproduce percussion with startling reality.  Voices are also exceptionally realistically portrayed, with all the elements that comprise the vocal sound correctly located in space and with no undue emphasis. The hardness you often hear with conventional tweeters is eliminated and you get a greater sense of hearing a live musician rather than a recorded one.

More information on the DDD driver, its development and advantages may be found on the Technology page of the German Physiks web site at http://bit.ly/1jLZekr.

Comprehensive Crossover Adjustment
The built in passive crossover provides a wide range of adjustment to allow the Loreley to be better set up to suit the user’s listening room.  The high frequency level may be adjusted over the range -2dB to +4dB in 4 steps and the low frequency level may be adjusted over the range +10dB to 0dB in 3 steps.  High quality jumpers on the rear panel make this adjustment quick and easy.

Optional Electronic Crossover
The Loreley may be ordered with a high quality DSP based digital crossover of the same type as we supply as standard with the Emperor and Gaudi models.  This allows extremely accurate matching of the loudspeaker’s frequency response to the characteristics of the listening room.  This is especially useful in dealing with problems in the low-end response, which is where the major problems found in most rooms occur.  The main set-up can be achieved using an auto calibrate mode and then further fine adjustments made by hand if necessary. The system allows a number of crossover set-ups to be stored and quickly recalled.  This makes it easy to experiment with new settings, safe in the knowledge that the system can easily be restored to its original state.  It also allows the user to have different system settings for different sorts of music if they wish.

Low Resonance Cabinet
A major cause of sound quality degradation in loudspeakers is unwanted vibrations and resonances in the cabinets.  If cabinet panels can vibrate, they act just like a loudspeaker driver diaphragm, colouring the sound and so reducing clarity.  The Loreley’s DDD drivers solve this problem by having very small enclosures, minimising the area of any potential vibrating surface.  By being cylindrical, they eliminate the resonances that can arise with a conventional rectangular or square section cabinet. Because they are made from aluminium, a comparatively soft metal, residual vibration of the enclosure is minimised. The DDD driver enclosure end-caps are made from non-resonant MDF and the enclosure is packed with damping material to dissipate any standing waves.  The result is that the German Physiks Loreley has the clarity that we normally associate with electrostatic loudspeakers and for the same reason:  they essentially have no enclosure to colour the sound.

The bass system covers the range from 180Hz downwards.  This is divided into two independent cabinets, so the panels are smaller and therefore stiffer and more vibration resistant than if a single large enclosure had been used.  All the cabinet vertical surfaces are non-parallel to prevent the formation of standing waves between them.  Internal bracing increases rigidity to suppress resonances.  Residual vibration is minimised by applying a special damping material called Hawaphon®, to the inside surface of each panel

Hawaphon®, consists of a polymer sheet containing a matrix of small cells filled with fine steel shot. It adds mass to the panels to reduce the resonant frequency and the ability of the balls in each cell to move against each other provides a very effective way of converting vibration energy into heat. Originally developed as an anti-surveillance measure for use in military and government buildings, Hawaphon® achieves broadband attenuation of structure-borne sound of more than 50dB, which is an exceptionally high figure.

To damp resonances of the air within the cabinet, the whole of the interior is lined with a 1cm thick layer of high-density felt.  This is achieved by fitting pieces of felt that are precisely cut to fit each panel, rather than just inserting a roll of felt into the cabinet.  This is a time consuming process, but we believe produces a superior result and is typical of the attention to detail that we lavish on all of our products.

Hand Finished Cabinets for Ultimate Quality
Because the look of our products is as important as the sound, all our cabinets are built and finished by skilled cabinetmakers for the best possible furniture grade finish.

The Loreley is available in black or white high-polish polyester; a wide range of high quality veneers in both satin and high gloss lacquer and satin and high gloss automotive paint finishes.

A high gloss carbon fibre finish is also available to special order. Here the cabinet’s heavy MDF panels are reinforced with multiple layers of bi-directional, resin impregnated carbon fibre, applied using techniques originally developed for the aircraft industry. This is then coated with a multi-layer lacquer and hand finished to a luxuriously high lustre. As well as looking extremely attractive, the carbon fibre adds an additional degree of stiffness to the cabinet.

More details of the finishes available may be found on the main German Physiks web site at http://bit.ly/1lj7U5x.

For product images and the latest version of the user manual, please follow this link to the German Physiks Download Page.

Loreley Mk III Specifications